


From A Sister To a Brother

by Theduelwelider



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Gen, Platonic Cuddling, Platonic Relationships, Talking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-09
Updated: 2020-05-09
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:02:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24085552
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Theduelwelider/pseuds/Theduelwelider
Summary: On a rainy day at the crumbled Monastery Leonie  goes to talk with Claude.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 18





	From A Sister To a Brother

  
  


It was raining when they woke up late that morning and it hasn’t stopped all day.

The dirt roads are slick and dotted with puddles, not usually the best way to travel on horseback. Rain soaks into the crumbled monastery walls, it's like the building itself grieves as it pours outside.

The smell is something she's used to back home, and was one of her favorites after a long day of hard work.

Night draws near in another hour or so.

Leonie opens the window in Claude's bedroom, letting in the sound of raging thunder and the clap of rain.

The breeze is nice this time of day Leonie looks at his Claude asleep on the bed, lying on his back with his left hand resting on his stomach. Claude woke up earlier than usual this morning, anyone around the noble would notice as he walked into the kitchen in his loose fitting clothes, not at all ready for the day.

Glancing at Leonie who started prep work for tonight's dinner for their fellow classmates. She briefly wondered if it was another nightmare. Everyone gets them, who wouldn't after the past five years, but Claude never talks about them. 

The closest they get to him doing that is his head leaning against someone's shoulder falling asleep before he jolts himself awake to apologize and leave.

Leonie returns to the kitchen, where she has a pot of minced meat and vegetable soup on the stove. She cooked it from scratch, like she always does. 

Having a real kitchen...no.. a nice kitchen to cook in after the years feels so refreshing, back home a lot land was destroyed she spent a majority of her years fixing houses, running soup kitchens, mercenary work when she had the time.

She has so many mixed feelings about being here, these people who she's been to school with, some she barely knows well but are somehow so close to her heart. 

She'd do anything for them...she loves them and she hopes that deep down they feel the same way. 

The need to protect them runs so strong in her veins, she can hardly control herself sometimes.

  
  


Leonie stirs the soup, which is more of a snack than dinner. She had that funny feeling in her gut that not long after Claude retreated to his bedroom, that he could use some comfort food. Soup is classic, no one ever turns that down.

She turns off the heat, takes two bowls down from the cupboard and fills them, then sets the bowls on a tray with spoons and cloth napkins with a side of some fresh bread. 

She’ll save the leftover soup in the fridge for Raphael. Leonie carries the tray to Claude's bedroom and leaves it on his desk, pushing what looks like important paper out of the way. 

Before waking him with a gentle grip of the shoulder. Claude opens his eyes in a way that tells Leonie he was sleeping light, and Leonie speaks in a soft voice. 

“Hey. Made some soup. You hungry?”

Claude thinks about it for a second.

“Sure.” He turns his head on the pillow to look out the window.

“Still raining?”

“Hasn’t let up.” Leonie brings the tray to Claude as he sits up in bed, his back against the headboard. Leonie takes her own bowl from the tray and sets it on the desk, sitting in the chair where Claude reads reports or sometimes drinks while quietly thinking.

It's usually a really bad roundetable meeting when she catches him five glasses empty and wasted in a corner. She wonders if that is what the others see when the stress is too much and someone has to pick her up at a local tavern.

She doesn't want the others to repeat her bad habits even if it's just for a little while. She's trying to stop, honest, Raphael is a key witness and a appreciated one.

For a few moments, the two are silent. 

“You okay?” Leonie asks.

Claude glances at her. 

“Yes. Why?”

“...Got up early this morning. Then you took a nap longer than usual....”

Leonie worries Claude knows, she worries about her friends, her career, her village. 

They’ve both become attuned to each other in new ways since coming back to the Monastery.

She's done jobs for Claude over the course of five years, she's found things about him he's kept secret from others. But she never said anything until he confronted her and they talked.

It didn't change anything, he was still Claude to her and that same day he hugged Leonie so tight she swears she felt him shaking.

“I have a dream...of freeing Fodlan, breaking down the border from the outside world so no one else has to suffer... forcing change but not like Edelgard never like her...but she made my dream so much easier to accomplish now... ,” Claude says, halfway through his bowl.

“It's a chilling thought .”

Leonie’s quiet for a while.

“Do you want to conquer Fodlan?

"Not partially, I mean it all used to be one big nation at one point. I'd say I'm putting it back together, others would say I sound just like the emperor herself.."

“You don't kill people though, you actually listen to the people, You know when you're in the wrong.”

She wants to shout and tell him how foolish he sounds but somehow she restrains herself.

"Not all the time...My people have different thoughts...different views on how we do things. The actions and things that I've seen while living makes me understand why the border feud has lasted so long."

"…"

"Edelgard and I have a lot in common practically to goals and for all my scheming, it scares me sometimes with the things I'm willing to do to keep everyone safe."

They've had this conversation a few times.

  
  


They don’t know how to do reverse time and start over.

Even now, they stay ahead of others by acting like they have it all figured out, that everything will be alright. 

It hasn't been for a long time.

“Well you shouldn't be,” says Leonie. 

“I think about it too, the things I'm willing to do for you guys. Besides If you ever step out of line, I'll kill you myself...we promised after all.”

“I know-” says Claude with a smile. 

“I know you don't like it, but I'm glad I can count on you Leonie.”

"Always."

Were friends, but Leonie feels like it's deeper than that. Like their siblings, not the kind Claude is used to- siblings who hurt you for being true to yourself. He's told her he doesn't have a sister but Leonie feels like she fills the role well.

“You know,” Leonie says while putting her empty bowl and spoon down on the desk. 

“If you ever want to go somewhere, just to get away, all you need to do is ask.”

Claude's mouth curves a little as he looks at her.

“I don't think the roundtable would be too happy about that--”

“To hell with them! Some aren't even trying to end this war and they blame you for not picking a side. ”

“Trust me, Leonie.I know.”

Claude eats the last of his soup and wipes his mouth with the napkin. Leonie takes the tray and the bowls back to the kitchen.

“Hey, Leonie?” Claude calls without moving from the bed.

“Yeah?” Leonie says as she reappears in his doorway.

Claude stares at her for a moment without speaking. 

“Will you…. come lie down with me for a little bit? Unless of course you’re busy.”

The corners of Leonie's mouth quirks and she shakes her head before crossing the room. She toes off her shoes, and lies down next to him. Claude turns onto his right side facing away from Leonie, and Leonie moves to spoon him without hesitation, her arm around Claude’s waist and her chest pressed to his back. Forehead resting against the back of Claude's skull. 

She feels his body relax, she feels herself relax too.

Cuddling—they never use that word because they both dislike it—has become an ordinary practice between them.

They have their eyes closed, lulled by the sound of the rain and each other’s body heat and breathing. They’ve wasted more free days cuddling and napping together than either one of them cares to admit. 

Sometimes Claude needs a protector even when he doesn't want to admit it to himself. Seeing as he's never really needed one, since he does everything himself.

But Leonie likes to feel like she fills in that hole in his life.

They’re quiet for a while, until Claude rolls over to face Leonie and Leonie moves to give him room. But then Claude's circling his top arm around her and tilting his face forward into her chest and Leonie cradles his head in her hands, has Claude’s right knee trapped between her own.

“Wanna go for a stroll through the market later?” Claude mumbles.

“In the rain?” says Leonie, equally sleepy.

“Mmhmm.”

“Kay.”

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> I love these two as siblings! They get along so well I finally got around of making something for them. :D


End file.
